Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Ted Strickland said Tuesday that he favors increasing payroll taxes on the wealthy to bolster Social Security.
Strickland, speaking before the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans in Columbus, said he favors additional taxes on "the millionaire and billionaire class" to help preserve the retirement system, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Currently, annual income beyond $118,500 is not subject to Social Security taxes; the Social Security system is currently set to run out of money in 2034.
Strickland also released a policy proposal online in which he vowed to oppose efforts to privatize Social Security and Medicare, push for a senior issues advocacy program and support tax credits for caregivers.
"Ohio's seniors and their families will know that they are a priority in my U.S. Senate Office, and that I will stand up for them and with them at every turn," the 74-year-old former Ohio governor from Columbus wrote in the proposal.
Strickland also spoke to the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans on Medicare:
He also opposes past Republican attempts to raise the retirement age to 68 or to privatize parts of the system.
The Medicare health-care fund for seniors is projected to become insolvent in 2030, although it would be able to pay 86 percent of promised benefits.
Strickland told the retirees' group, which has endorsed him, that he opposes efforts to turn Medicare into a voucher program in which beneficiaries would shop for their own policies.
He instead advocates "common-sense ideas" such as allowing negotiating over drug prices and eliminating waste and fraud to improve the fund's finances.
Strickland vowed he would create a senior advocacy program in his office to help retirees deal with the federal bureaucracy surrounding the entitlement programs.
"Some people live in a bubble, they have no idea what it's like for working people," he said. "We have to protect these programs from those like Sen. Portman who don’t understand the struggles facing working people and are jeopardizing retirement security for seniors in order to push the agenda of the Washington power brokers and wealthy special interests.”
Portman has suggested raising the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare recipients and curbing benefits for wealthier Americans, a concept known as means-testing. He has supported House Republican budgets that would have created Medicare vouchers. He has voted against such a move in recent years, his campaign said.
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